Analysis of japanese pitch accent in L1 and L2 speech

Abstract

This study examines pitch patterns in Japanese speech produced by native speakers and Taiwan Mandarin speakers learning Japanese at the beginning level. It aims to provide detailed characteristics of pitch patterns at both word and sentence levels, and to discern common pitch errors in Mandarin speakers’ pronunciations. Mandarin speakers had more difficulty with pronunciation of words consisting of all light syllables than with words containing a heavy syllable, and a steep pitch drop all the way through the words was commonly observed. More importantly, the learners seemed unaware of the difference between accented rising pitch followed by a low pitch and accent-less rising pitch followed by a high pitch. This suggests that even though they know how to correctly pronounce words, they need to know accurate pronunciations at phrase level.